New Technique Detects False Memories

Recent research (see False Memories Have Characteristic Brain Activity) indicates that it may be possible to distinguish between a false memory and a memory of actual events. Scientists at Harvard have shown that it is the sensory areas of the brain that are more active when people recall information correctly, rather than the regions associated with memory.

This would be good news for Philip K. Dick, many of whose novels hinge (or unhinge, as the case may be) on what events are true and what events are not. See the entry for implanted memory from his 1966 story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/11/2003)